By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, January 12, 2017
Wacky winter weather is punishing city roads, with pothole crews filling more craters than usual
.“We definitely have more potholes,” Bryden Denyes, central area roads manager, said Wednesday as temperatures continued to climb above the freezing point.
One week it’s raining, then it’s snowing, followed by biting cold temperatures.
By Joe Lofaro, Ottawa Citizen, January 12, 2017
How do you solve a problem like Elgin Street?
One solution presented at a public open house Wednesday night includes reducing parking spaces along a 1.6-kilometre section of the street by half, make the sidewalks wider, and have cyclists and vehicles share one lane in each direction.
But with the search for parking already a game of cat-and-mouse on the busy thoroughfare, some are worried the proposed street renewal might turn visitors away.
By Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen, January 12, 2017
Which of Ottawa’s neighbourhoods has the worst snow removal?
OK, hands down everybody, and stop screaming — you can’t all have baddest banks on the planet. But The Glebe, surely, has to be among the worst.
We’re standing with Stephanie ter Veen, 46, and her daughter Francesca, 10, outside First Avenue Public School — and we’re standing pretty much in a puddle, this being the state of sidewalks in a January thaw, with a steady overnight rain. (Honestly, there were moms and strollers, lacking appropriate scuba gear, taking up the middle of side streets to avoid ferrying sidewalk lakes.)
By Susana Mas, Ottawa Citizen, January 12, 2017
Public transit users who ride back and forth between Gatineau and the nation’s capital are waiting to find out whether the Outaouais’s regional bus system is deemed an essential service.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board, an independent tribunal, finished hearing arguments earlier this week by the Société de transport de l’Outaouais (STO) and the union that represents its workers.
By Jessica Cunha, Ottawa Community News, January 11, 2017
The newest park-and-ride to open in north Kanata should help alleviate the parking congestion at other lots in the community.
The first phase of OC Transpo’s Innovation Station park-and-ride was officially opened with a brief ribbon cutting ceremony on Jan. 11, attended by Kanata North Coun. Marianne Wilkinson, Mayor Jim Watson, OC Transpo manager Pat Scrimgeour and other councillors and city officials.
By John Curry, Ottawa Community News, January 11, 2017
The possibility of a farmers market at Village Square Park in Stittsville is moving closer to reality.
The city of Ottawa has initiated a rezoning for the park that would permit the operation of a farmers market there. The rezoning would alter the current open space zoning to add an exception to permit a farmers market.
By Matt Skube, CTV News Ottawa, January 11, 2017
Dino Iafelice already has issues with parking on Elgin St.
"I do have reservations calling, saying 'hi, we're running late because we can't find parking' or 'hi, we're running late because there is no parking,'" he explains.
Things are going to get harder for the owner of Johnny Farina. A new design for the Elgin will feature wider sidewalks, cutting the street down to two lanes. It will eliminate a lot of parking and construction is expected to take two years.
"We've had other groups, other BIAs, telling us tighten your belt, it's not going to be a good ride," says Iafelice.
More trees and benches are expected to be installed. The city says it will be easier for people to use public transit and more restaurants will be able to do patios in the summer. Most people are on board.
By Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen, January 11, 2017
The City of Ottawa is holding a public open house on Wednesday concerning the future of Elgin Street and Hawthorne Avenue.
The purpose of the ongoing Elgin Street and Hawthorne Avenue Functional Design Study, which first invited the public into the fold last June, is to examine and address such issues as on-street parking, sidewalk widths, transit requirements, bicycle and turning lanes, streetscaping and public art on Elgin Street between Laurier Avenue and Queen Elizabeth Driveway, and Hawthorne Avenue from Main Street to the Pretoria Bridge.
By StittsvilleCentral, January 9, 2017
Ottawa Public Health is hoping that Minecraft will lay the building blocks to getting kids engaged in their community and its health.
A pilot project recently wrapped up at the Stittsville and Centrepointe libraries, where youth aged nine to 17 attempted to re-imagine and build a part of their local community in the popular building game Minecraft.
“What we’re really trying to do is get youth engaged about how their community affects their health,” said Ottawa Public Health’s Vinh Nguyen, who directed the pilot.
By Hailey Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, January 10, 2017
The canal has been flooded from Dow’s Lake to downtown, but the National Capital Commission says they’ll need a final push from mother nature to finally open the skateway.
Cédric Pelletier, spokesperson for the NCC, said while he’s been getting plenty of questions from friends and the public, there’s no secret confirmed date to reveal.
“Operations are going well right now. Over the weekend we managed to do a lot of flooding,” he said. “We’re building ice, we’re working hard, but we haven’t reached the 30 cm of good quality ice that we need to open the skateway.”
By Tara McMahon, Ottawa Community News, January 10, 2017
Editor's Note: The following essay won third place in Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans' essay writing contest that asked entrants to write about their vision for Canada over the next 50 years.
The year 2017 marks Canada’s 150th anniversary. In the years since 1867, many things have changed; our fashion, our provinces, our technology. As a country, we have proved our strength and independence through our work ethic, and our ability to be a forward thinking country that any nation can look up to. If we look back at the past 50 years, the innovations are innumerable. Canada has grown so much in such a short amount of time, and through looking to the past, it is easy to imagine how much we can do in the years still to come.
By Jayceegabriel Calderon, Ottawa Community News, January 10, 2017
Editor's Note: The following essay won second place in Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans' essay writing contest that asked entrants to write about their vision for Canada over the next 50 years.
In 2067, our community and city has blossomed into a more beautiful and friendly environment that accepts and embraces diversity. While our community has always been a place full of different kinds of people and a variety of infrastructure, I feel that our country will advance in many technological and ecological ways that will reflect the diverse makeup of our nation.